Woman sues LAPD over SWAT raid allegedly triggered by confusion over similar name
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A Fox Hills woman who says she was woken up, held at gunpoint and handcuffed by a SWAT team is suing Los Angeles and the city’s Police Department, claiming officers targeted her house by mistake.
The case is the latest in a series of lawsuits against the LAPD alleging civil rights violations during home raids. The department has paid out at least 10 settlements dating to 2018 totaling more than $2 million, according to public records analyzed by The Times.
Court filings say the recent incident happened last year on Nov. 13 at around 4 a.m., when Danine Dean, 48, was home alone, while her teenage son stayed at his father’s house.
According to her lawsuit, filed this month in federal court in Los Angeles, Dean heard a pounding on her door and she opened up to see assault rifles pointed at her. She claims she was escorted outside, in her pajamas and barefoot, and detained for more than an hour while the SWAT team searched her home.
A lawsuit by former SWAT officer Timothy Colomey accused leaders of the LAPD tactical unit of working to conceal unlawful killings and retaliating against him when he spoke to internal investigators.
In an interview with The Times, Dean said three detectives arrived and told her there had been robberies in the area. They walked her back inside and sat her down, she recalled, before proceeding to search her apartment, emptying every drawer and compartment.
She said the detectives showed her a picture of a young black male and asked whether she had ever seen him. She didn’t recognize him — but they did have something in common.
“They told me the person’s name was Devante Dean and we had the same last name, so it happened to be a coincidence,” Dean said. “My last name isn’t even all that uncommon.”
At first the investigators asked whether they were related, Dean claims — then they tried a different line of questioning.
“The [detectives] started to ask if my son could’ve known him or if he was one of his friends,” she said. “That was when it really started not making sense because they first thought [Devante Dean] was related to me, but now he’s a friend of my son?”
After an hour, Dean’s lawsuit says, an officer informed her that the search was a mistake. She later visited her local police station to file a complaint about the encounter, her lawsuit said, but when there was no follow-up by the department she decided to take the matter to court.
A spokesperson from the city attorney’s office, which represents the LAPD in the case, declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
Dean, who works as a psychologist, said she has owned her home for more than 23 years and has no criminal history. When wanting to settle down and start a family with her husband at the time, she says they chose the Culver City’s Fox Hills neighborhood because it’s historically Black and they thought it was a place where they would feel safe.
“Growing up in Fullerton, I was around people who didn’t necessarily look like me. But when moving to L.A., I wanted to be able to walk down my street and see people who looked like me and my family. It was a huge draw to the neighborhood,” Dean said.
A lawsuit alleges Mohd Hijaz died after San Bernardino County Sheriff’s deputies deployed tasers and baton strikes during an encounter that began when an individual reported he was acting erratically.
Since the incident, Dean says she has constantly been on edge. Her children have yet to come back to the house, where she has lived for 23 years, because they are scared to visit. She’s now considering a move.
“I don’t think I can live here for very much longer. I’ve been completely interrupted,” Dean said. “It makes me very sad. I guess that’s all I can say, especially knowing that I built so many memories here with my kids and with my family.”
Dean’s lawsuit names Det. Carlos Carrillo as the person “who appeared to be in charge” of the raid that night. He did not respond to a message sent Tuesday to his department email.
Dean and her attorney, Ian Wallach, said they have yet to access the affidavit behind the search warrant, which would lay out the probable cause police used to justify their actions.
“Normally, you can get access to the affidavit behind the search warrant. We’ve not been able to do that,” Wallach said. “We call the judges chambers, we’ve gone to the clerk’s office, we’ve gone everywhere and we’re still not able to get to the affidavit that would say why this happened. I fear the reason this happened is because Danine Dean sounds like Devante Dean.”
Times staff writer Libor Jany contributed to this report.
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